Corset-stiffener



(Model.)

E. K. WARREN.

CORSET STIPFENER. No. 286,749. Patented 00's. 16, 1883.

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WITNBSSES www# BY uw ATTORNEYS.

NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD K. WARREN, OF THREE OAKS, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR lOF ONE-HALF TO GEORGE R. yHOLDEN, OF MICHIGAN CITY, INDIANA.

CORSET-STIFFENER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 286,749, dated October 16, 1883.

Application filed January 9, 1883. (No model.)

.T all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, EDWARD K. WARREN, of Three Oaks, in the county of Berrien and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Corset-Stiffeners, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention has for its object the utilization as a rib or stiffener for corsets and other articles of dress or fabrics of the stalks, stems, or quill portions of feathers after they have been stripped-as, for instance, the feathers of turkeys, geese, chickens, and other fowlsmuch of which kind of stock has heretofore had little or noK commercial value. These I propose to use, among other purposes or uses, as a substitute for whalebone in corsets, Waists, dresses, abdominal supporters, surgical appliances, and other articles of wear and use. The growing scarcity andfincreased cost of whalebone for these and other purposes has led to the employment of various substitutes, including bones, horn, rubber, steel, and rat tan; also, the fibers of tampico held together by an exterior binding-as, for instance, by a wrapping of wire or thread. Many of these are expensive and much inferior in numerous respects to whalebone. My improved bone or rib, which I term featherbone, has many advantages, and the same may be made to form a compact stay or bone, which in some respects is better and has more enduring elasticity than whalebone, as it 'is not so liable to breakv or Warp, nor will it be injured by prespiration or boiling Water in washing. Such elastic substitute for whalebone I generally propose to make by splitting or otherwise reducing, either by hand or machinery, but preferably by machinery, the quills, into splints. These splints or bers may be held together by any suitable external binding. Thus I wrap them with either wire or thread by winding, braiding, twisting, or they may be cemented or be otherwise put up together to form a featherbone of any desired shape in` its transverse section, and may either be simply inserted in the article to which they are applied or be Woven therein, or they may be woven together, so as to form an elastic or 5o iiexible fabric.

`their entire form.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specication, in which similar letters of reference indicate corsponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 represents any exterior longitudinal 55 view of a featherbone in which a number of quill splints are held together by winding a wire or thread around them. Fig. 2 is a similar view of a number of quill splints held together by a woven covering. Fig. 3 is a View 6o in perspective, upon an enlarged scale, of a portion of one of the quill splints detached; and Fig. 4 is a cross-section of Fig. l, and Fig. 5 a crosssection of Fig. 2, both being on an enlarged scale. Fig. 6 is a perspective view of 65 a stiffener made of the entire quills in a suitable wrapper.

In the drawings, b b represent a number of split-quill splints arranged longitudinallyto-` gether in any suitable manner to form afeathl 7o erbone, A, of any desired form in its trans versesection, and which maybe held together either by a wound wire or thread external binding, c, as in Figs. l and 4L, or by a woven external covering, c', as in Figs. 2 and 5, or 75 which may be otherwise held together, as hereinbefore specified.

By using the separated fibers or splints of the stripped quills or stems of feathers, produced by splitting or disintegrating them, the 8o resiliency of the quills is preserved without exposing them to breakage` in bending, to which they would be more or less liable if used in However7 the entire quills make avery good stiifener lwhen stripped and 8 5 bound together, as shown in Fig. 6 ofthe draw-- ings.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters- Patentl 9o A corsetstiffener formed of quills or quill splints stripped of the feathers and bound together, as shown and described.

EDWARD KIRK VARREN.`

Vitnesses:

HENRY A. MOGANN, RETTA HOLLETT. 

